All Restrictions End - Reflections on Islam and clothing, Iranian cinema, Persian painting and more characterize this thought-provoking artistic documentary.

Amateur Photographer - The story of a German soldier and the photographs that he took, while serving on the Eastern Front during WWII.

Americas in Transition - A concise and fast-paced history of the volatile forces at work in Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua in the 1980s

Angry Monk - Gendun Choephel, a legendary figure in Tibet, turned from the monastic life he was born to (as the reincarnation of a Buddhist lama), to become a fierce critic of his country's religious conservatism and isolationism.

Antonio Negri - The biography and current relevance of the sociologist and political philosopher, co-authoer of EMPIRE, and his role as an intellectual leader of the anti-globalization movement.

The Apology - Three former "Comfort Women" forced to serve Japanese troops during World War II tell their harrowing stories.

As a Young Girl of Thirteen - Holocaust survivor Simone Lagrange vividly recounts her experiences in Auschwitz, and the role she played in bringing Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie to justice.

B

The Battle of Chile (Part 1 and Part 2) - The epic chronicle of Chile's open and peaceful socialist revolution, and of the violent counter-revolution against it in 1973. Judy Stone of the San Francisco Chronicle called it "a landmark in the presentation of living history on film."

The Battle of Chile - The epic chronicle of Chile's open and peaceful socialist revolution, and of the violent counter-revolution against it in 1973, now on a special edition 4-DVD set.

Be Seeing You - In Chris Marker's film, workers at a textile factory on strike in pre-May '68 France, not just for more money, but for a different way of life.

Behind the Rainbow - An in-depth exploration into the recent internal conflicts of the ANC in South Africa, leading to Jacob Zuma's election as president.

Berlin 1885: The Division of Africa - The story of the first international conference on Africa, which established its division amongst the European powers, and created Congo as a personal possession of the Belgian king.

The Bible Unearthed - A four-part series based on the best-selling book The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finkelstein (Prof. of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University) and Neil Silberman (Director of the Ename Center for Public Archaeology & Heritage Presentation).

Black Africa White Marble - A contemporary David-and-Goliath story that sheds a harsh light on the colonial past and troubled present of The Republic of Congo.

Black Sun - A history of the esoteric ideas and myths that served as a breeding ground for Nazi ideology and inspired Adolf Hiter.

Bones of Contention - Explores the theme of historical memory in post-Franco Spain, focusing on the unknown story of LGBT repression under Franquismo.

Boyamba Belgique - The day before Congo gained independence, the sabre of the Belgian king Baudouin was stolen by a young Congolese. Fifty years later the filmmakers search for him, and discover the meaning of his act.

C

Capitalism - An ambitious and accessible six-part series that looks at both the history of ideas and the social forces that have shaped the capitalist world.

Chile, Obstinate Memory - Patricio Guzmán's landmark film The Battle of Chile(1976) documented the "Popular Unity" period of Salvador Allende's government, the tumultuous events leading up to the 1973 coup, and Allende's death. Guzmán has returned to show The Battle of Chile in his homeland for the first time, and to explore the terrain of the confiscated (but reawakening) memories of the Chilean people.

Chronicle Of A Genocide Foretold - Shot over three years, CHRONICLE OF A GENOCIDE FORETOLD follows several Rwandans before, during, and after the 1994 genocide.

Class of Struggle - Workers at the Yema Watch Factory in Besancon depict their own labor struggles in this collective production initiated by Chris Marker.

A Common Purpose - The trial of the "Upington 25" in South Africa in 1986 saw twenty-five men and women from a black township tried for the murder of a local black policeman.

Division of Hearts - Ordinary people from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh recount their tumultuous experiences after the 1947 British subdivision of colonial India.

E

East Punk Memories - Punks who struggled with Hungary's communist regime discuss their experiences, music and mohawks.

The East Wind State Farm - Condemned "Rightists," sentenced to 21 years of "thought reform," share first-person accounts of life in a Chinese labor camp.

The Embassy - In one of Chris Marker's few fiction films, political dissidents seek refuge in a foreign embassy after a military coup d'état in an unidentified country.

End of the Dialogue - A landmark film that was one of the first to reveal the full horrors of apartheid to the world.

The End of the Ottoman Empire - The Ottomans ruled three continents for six centuries. How did their rule end, and how does this history inform politics today?

Episode 1 - Capitalism is much more complex than the vision Adam Smith laid out in The Wealth of Nations. Indeed, it predates Smith by centuries and took root in the practices of colonialism and the slave trade.

Episode 2 - Adam Smith was both economist and moral philosopher. But his work on morality is largely forgotten, leading to tragic distortions that have shaped our global economic system.

Episode 3 - The roots of today's global trade agreements lie in the work of stockbroker David Ricardo and demographer Thomas Malthus. Together, they would restructure society in the image of the market.

Episode 4 - Have we gotten Marx wrong by focusing on the Communist Manifesto instead of on his critique of how capitalism works - a critique that is relevant and as penetrating as ever?

Episode 5 - The ideological divide between the philosophies of John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek has dominated economics for nearly a century. Is it time for the pendulum to swing back to Keynes? Or do we need a whole new approach that goes beyond this dualism?

Episode 6 - An exploration of the life and work of Karl Polanyi, who sought to reintegrate society and economy. Could the commodification of labour and money ultimately be as disastrous as floods, drought and earthquakes?

How Putin Came to Power - A detailed investigation, with archives and exclusive interviews with the participants, into how Vladimir Putin rose from mayoral aide in St. Petersburg, to President of Russia, in only eight years.

The Human Zoo - The story of 25 people from four Chilean indigenous groups who in the 19th centry were exhibited as attractions across Europe.

I

In Search of Memory - The life and work of one of the most important neuroscientists of the 20th century, Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel.

In the Intense Now - A meditation on 1968 political uprisings in France, Czechoslovakia, China, and Brazil.

The Ister - A journey up the Danube River, this film takes up some of the most challenging paths in Martin Heidegger's thought. With the philosophers Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jean-Luc Nancy, Bernard Stiegler, and filmmaker Hans-Jürgen Syberberg.

Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir - From 1967, for the first time on video or DVD, a portrait of two of the most influential and controversial writers and thinkers of the 20th century. They discuss their work, lives, and the role of intellectuals in modern society.

K

K.O.R. - An insider's look at Poland's dissident Workers Defense Committee - and how the group's actions led directly to the formation of the Solidarity union and the end of Poland's Communist regime.

Kuxa Kanema - The story of Mozambique's National Institute of Cinema (INC) - a history of the birth and death of local cinema, and the birth and death of an ideology.

L

La Commune - The most recent film by Peter Watkins. A 5 hour 45 minute event. Based on a thorough historical research into the Paris Commune of 1871, this film leads to an inevitable reflection about the present.

The Last Bolshevik - This two-disc set includes Chris Marker's tribute to Russian film director Alexander Medvedkin, Medvedkin's silent classic HAPPINESS (1934), and loads of extras.

Last Grave at Dimbaza - Shot secretly and smuggled out of South Africa at the height of the apartheid era, this was the most widely screened and influential anti-apartheid documentary. Now restored and on DVD for the first time.

Le Joli Mai - Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme's legendary portrait of Paris and Parisians at the close of the Algerian war.

Leninland - The world's largest museum devoted to Lenin offers a "true Soviet-era experience." But can it survive in the new Russia?

Level Five - In Chris Marker's futuristic reverie, game-developer Laura creates a video game based on the WWII Battle of Okinawa.

Living With The Past - Cairo is one of the few medieval cities in the world that remains relatively intact. This a portrait of Darb al-Ahmar, a neighborhood in the old city now facing a process of radical change.

Lotman's World - The story of Yuri Lotman (1922-1993), little-known - except maybe in Estonia! - pioneer of semiotics.

A Mayan Trilogy: Life, Death & Migration - Now on one DVD, Olivia Carrescia's three films on the Mayan Indians of Guatemala preserve a record, and provide an acute observation on how the indigenous culture has been affected by, yet survived, that country's tumultuous history.

Milosevic on Trial - Four years of the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, charged with 66 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for his role in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

Mina's Recipe Book - Before dying of starvation in a concentration camp, Mina carefully recorded her favorite recipes, hoping they would somehow make it to her daughter overseas.

The Miners' Hymns - The ill-fated coal mining communities in North East England are the subject of this inspired documentary by multi-media artist Bill Morrison. Music by Johann Johannsson.

Mobutu - The definitive history and visual record of the rise and fall of Joseph Désiré Mobutu, ruler of Zaire (the Congo) for over 30 years.

The Moroccan Labyrinth - The little-known history of Spain's bloody colonial ambitions in North Africa, and how they became a prelude to the Spanish Civil War.

Mustapha Kemal Ataturk - The story of the founder of the Republic of Turkey, called Atatürk ("the father of the Turks").

N

Nanjing - Till today the history of the 1937 "Rape of Nanking" is a point of contention between China and Japan. How is it seen in each country, and can a shared memory ever be constructed?

A Belgrade apartment divided in two—with one half that has been locked for generations—tells the story of Serbia's political turmoil.

Our Newspaper - A couple starts their own newspaper in rural Russia... which lands them in danger.

P

The Patriot Game - The history of the long and bitter battle for Northern Ireland.

The Pinochet Case - The story of the landmark legal case against General Augusto Pinochet of Chile, before and after his arrest in London in 1998.

R

Rabbit a la Berlin - 2010 Academy Award Nominee, Best Documentary Short Subject. The history of the Berlin Wall from the rabbits' point-of-view.

Red Persimmons - A visually elegant paean to the cultivation and harvesting of the sweet red fruit, and the disappearance of a traditional way of life in rural Japan.

Remembrance of Things to Come - This tapestry of still photographs, subject-skipping montage and rapid shuttle of wit and philosophy is pure Chris Marker.

A Road to Mecca - The story of Leopold Weiss, a Viennese Jew who converted to Islam in the 1920's and became the Muslim scholar Muhammad Asad.

S

Salvador Allende - Patricio Guzmán (The Battle of Chile) tells Allende's story, from his youth in Valparaiso and his early career, to his presidency of Chile and death during the coup of September 11, 1973.

Scars of Memory - An oral history of the 1932 massacre of 10,000 El Salvadorans, a trauma that has resonated through six decades of military rule, until the 1992 peace accords ended a brutal, 12-year civil war.

Searching for Lin Zhao's Soul - This landmark documentary reveals the tragic life of a gifted young woman who was executed for speaking out during the height of Chairman Mao's rule.

Shi'ism - Across Iran, Lebanon and Iraq a cross-section of major contemporary Shiite figures discuss and debate the history, theology and values of this minority branch of Islam.

Sleeping Souls - A political hireling working for "United Russia" explains the cold inner mechanic of the system.

Snake Dance - A reflection on the Promethean dimensions of nuclear power, following German-born Aby Warburg and Robert Oppenheimer, inventor of the atomic bomb

Sociology is a Martial Art - An introduction to the work of Influential sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, whose 40 books and countless articles represent a renovation and application of social science.

SPK Complex - In 1970, Dr. Wolfgang Huber and a group of patients founded the anti-psychiatric "Socialist Patient's Collective" in Germany, causing run-ins with the local authorities.

Stony Paths - Following in his great-grandfather's footsteps, Arnaud undertakes a trek across Anatolia to study the Armenian Genocide.

To Tell the Truth: Working for Change - A detailed history of documentary filmmaking in the US and the UK from 1929 to 1941 focused on the social movements of the times, The Great Depression, The New Deal, and the awakening of the Leftwing in the UK.

The Two Lives of Eva - The complicated, traumatic story of a young woman, the filmmaker's mother, a well-off, Polish Lutheran before WWII, who afterwards married a Jewish Warsaw ghetto survivor.

W

Wandering Souls - Thirty years after the end of the war against the United States, two Vietnamese veterans continue to search for the remains of their dead comrades.

Which Way Is East: Notebooks from Vietnam - When two American sisters travel north from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, conversations with Vietnamese strangers and friends reveal to them the flip side of a shared history.

Z

Zone of Silence - Five Cuban intellectuals discuss censorship as a historical, political and social phenomenon.

Zygosis - A radical and humorous electronic homage to John Heartfield, anti-Nazi German satirist who pioneered the photomontage.

More Films & DVDs on World History

Andre's Lives - The story of Andre Steiner, dubbed "the Jewish Schindler," who saved thousands of Slovak Jews during the Holocaust.

August Sander - A portrait of one of the most important photographers of the 20th century, who though uncelebrated in his own lifetime, pioneered social documentary photography.

Awakening from Sorrow: Buenos Aires 1997 - Documents the power to transform pain into action and to lift the veil of repression that has gripped a generation of young people orphaned by Argentina's 'Dirty War.'

Back to Ararat - Examines this century's first genocide - the killing of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I.

A Child's Century of War - Takes the viewer on a journey through the past century - the bloodiest in history - from the perspective of children, and tells their stories in their voices.

China Yellow, China Blue - Two-part documentary tells the history of China in the 20th Century - entirely with original archives and motion pictures.

The Comrade - The story of Luiz Carlos Prestes, legendary leader of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) for over 35 years, who died in 1990.

Cycling the Frame - A quirky 1988 documentary in which Tilda Swinton tours the circumference of the Berlin Wall on a bicycle.

Deadly Enemies - From early attempts to use bacteria as weapons, to the advent of gene splicing and the creation of superbugs, this is the chilling story of the development of biological weapons.

Dealing with the Demon - Three-episode series that interweaves contemporary human stories with crucial scenes from the history of the drug trade, providing a provocative and timely commentary from which to view the ongoing debate.

Death Squadrons - The previously untold story of how the French military trained Latin American death squads in the 60s and 70s (and even U.S. Special Forces in the early days of our Vietnam War).

Disco and Atomic War - The Soviet regime in Estonia went head to head with J.R. Ewing and the heroes of Western television...and lost.

Drowning by Bullets - Exposes the massacre, cover-up, and the years of denial of what was undoubtedly one of the darkest nights in the history of France.

Epoca - How is history created? What does or does not enter our memory? By staging a variety of historical fragments, this meditative documentary challenges the idea of "authentic" history.

FALN - A remarkable time capsule of Venezuelan political and social history, and valuable background to the ongoing social conflicts in that country.

Fernando is Back - Documents the workings of Chile's Forensic Identification Unit in its quest to reclaim the identities of those 'disappeared' and killed during the Pinochet dictatorship.

Flower in Otomi - Tells the story of Deni Prieto Stock, killed by the Mexican army in 1973.

Forever Lenin - Why, and how, was Lenin mummified in 1924? And how, and why, is he still on display in Red Square today?

Forging Identity - The remarkable' life of Adolfo Kaminsky, master forger. He helped thousands of Jews escape Nazi persecution, and after the war many 'underground' movements.

Human Weapon - The first sober, in-depth examination of the history of suicide bombing. Filmed in Iran, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Israel, Palestine, Europe and the United States.

In Search of the Unreturned Soldiers - Shohei Imamura travels first to Malaysia and then to Thailand, to investigate the lives and experiences of Japanese soldiers who, during World War II, chose to desert.

The Internationale - Draws on people's stories of an emotionally charged radical song (the long-time anthem of socialism and communism) to celebrate the relationship between music and social change.

The Invisible Frame - A filmic journey starring Tilda Swinton as she traces the former Berlin Wall via bicycle.

Japan, The Emperor and the Army - Examines how Japan's demilitarization in the months following the WWII continues to resonate today - in Japanese politics, national identity and cultural influence on the international stage.

Just Watch Me - The Canadian "70's Generation" - growing up under the elegant and enigmatic Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau.

Justice and the Generals - Investigates the human rights and legal issues involved when two Salvadoran generals are sued in an American court for atrocities (such as the murder of four American churchwomen) committed during El Salvador's civil war.

Kim's Story: The Road from Vietnam - The story of Kim Phuc, the subject of perhaps the most famous photograph of the Vietnam War, is a story of the personal and public healing of wounds from this century's longest, most divisive war.

Magnitogorsk - The fortunes of three generations living in the shadow of Russia's most breathtaking industrial project of the 1930s. The film was inspired by Joris Ivens'Song of the Heroes. (from the January, 1998 Catalog Supplement)

Revue - A portait of life in the USSR in the '50s and '60s, this is the new film by Sergei Loznitsa (Blockade).

Samora Machel, Son Of Africa - Before his death in a mysterious plane crash, Mozambican President Samora Machel gave the filmmaker and exclusive interview that forms the basis for the look at one of Africa's most important freedom fighters and revolutionaries.

A Song for Ireland - Traces the history of Ireland through her music, and Ireland's music through her history.

Sotsgorod: Cities For Utopia - Uncovers the secret history of Western architects who moved to the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s, to design the huge new industrial cities being built across Siberia and the steppes.

Stealing the Fire - In 1996, the German nuclear engineer Karl-Heinz Schaab was accused of selling secret information to Iraq. But was Schaab a shrewd traitor or a simple pawn in a much more extensive network?

The Sugar Curtain - An intimate portrait by Camila Guzmán Urzúa about growing up in Cuba during the "golden years" of the Cuban Revolution.

Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square - An artist's personal exploration of China's recent history from the Cultural Revolution through the 1980s, told through a rich collage of original artwork, archival and family photographs, and animation.

Syria, Chess Match at the Borders - A chronicle, enriched by archival footage and interviews, of how Syria became simultaneously a player and a pawn in the geopolitical "chess match" that characterizes the Middle East today.

Syria: the Assads' Twilight - A lively documentary history of Syria's Assad regime, tracing its origins and influence, even as it clings to power in the face of the Arab spring.

They Chose China - Academy Award-nominated documentarian Shuibo Wang tells the controversial story of American POWs who after the Korean War refused repatriation, and stayed in China.

Through the Consul's Eye - Films shot by a French Consul in turn-of-the-century China. With a camera lent by the Lumiere brothers, he documented the historic events and everyday life he saw around him.

Tracing Aleida - Thirty years after being separated when their parents "disappeared" during Mexico's "Dirty War" in the '70s, Aleida searches to uncover the truth, and to find her brother.

We Loved Each Other So Much - The Lebanese singer Hoda Nouhad Haddad, better known as Fairuz, is a legend in the Arab world. The stories of diverse Beirut inhabitants and of their love for her provide a moving commentary on Lebanon's tumultuous history.

Yugoslavia: Origins of a War - Provides a detailed background to the ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, using only archive and unpublished material.